New generation of Finnish startups!

Smartly founder duo going BRR

Author

Roope Ripatti
December 02, 2024

This really feels like the next wave of Finnish startups…

Just last week I told you about taito.ai, a new ai based company for HR teams to succeed with performance management. One of the founders of that company was Kristo Ovaska, one of the two founders of Smartly.io.

Now the other technical co-founder Tuomo Riekki is putting together his own company Zero! They just raised a seed round of 2.7M from top VCs and angels across Europe. Leading the round was 20VC, and other participants were Illusian, James Hawkins (PostHog), Irena Goldenberg (Highland), and others!

I won’t tell you everything so you need to go and read the launch post ;)

Go show them love!
https://zero.inc/posts/pre-seed-announcement

If you want to check their socials:
X (twitter), LinkedIn

- Roope Ripatti

Corporate news for some reason?

While the news are from bigger companies, wanted to highlight them since they might have some down the line effects on Finnish startups. (+ did not see that many startup news just after Slush)

Google potentially investing +10B$ to Finland

Google is planning to build 2 new data centers to Finland, one in Kajaani and one in Muhos. It has already bought 1400 hectares of land, but the final decisions are still waiting. Only the land sales were 27 million dollars.

The data center Google already has in Hamina has resulted in ~4.5B$ of total investments and the 2 new data centers are expected to be even bigger than the one in Hamina.

Hopefully this results in some cool opportunities for new Finnish startups!

Source (in Finnish only)

Nokia jumping to miltech

During Slush I was talking to one of the full-timers about why Slush is still not taking in any miltech/defense tech companies into Slush and they were just as baffled as I was.

Finland has had a stance of neutrality for a long time and alongside it has not ventured into major military/defense tech investments. However, it seems that the sentiment towards those technologies is finally shifting. I’m seeing some really potential Finnish startups in the space and now with the poster child of Finnish tech (in mainstream) Nokia jumping into miltech, I hope the sentiment is Finally going to the right direction!

Upcoming stuff

Today (Mon) 2.12.

Tue 3.12.

Wed 4.12.

How to Prompt Workshop (Lappeenranta)

Weekend

Help needed

I’m working on a new project on helping builders build even cooler shit. If you are someone who loves tinkering, making prototypes, or launching new GitHub repos every other week, tell me about your project and how you started it! I’d love to know your story and what have been the speedbumps on your journey.

Your weekly read

Not directly related to startups but rather to writing. I found one of the newer Paul Graham essays about the future of writing fascinating. Its a quick <5min read, go check it out!

https://www.paulgraham.com/writes.html

Go tell your friends about Founder Fuel 👀 

-Roope